Nutrition Is Not Common Sense

I'd like to explain an important concept that most online trainers (even the "gurus") don't "get"...

Have you ever heard that 'nutrition is common sense?'

Have you ever thought about why the United States has an epidemic of overweight individuals and kids that are out of shape? Or that most people talk about how in their younger days they were able to do this and that. Yet these people are only 30 years old?

Most people think nutrition is common sense. But these people are completely wrong.

You see, common sense isn't specialized knowledge, but just native good judgment. Many times common sense is when it comes to many things in life are learned behaviors from parents, teachers, mentors or coaches. We get at lot of this common knowledge thru what we see as well. Driving on the right of left side of the road is common sense in your country. You get this from what you see.

The REAL four biggest problems when it comes to nutrition and common sense is that:

1- You learn what to eat from T. V. How crazy is that? I don't think I've seen a good commercial about just eating right. It's always about diets, points, fad diets, crazy workout stuff or fast food. Many kids get plenty of T. V. They don't understand why sugar cereal isn't part of a complete breakfast.

3- You learn to finish everything that's put in front of you. Does it matter if your hunger was satisfied half-way thru the meal? Or have you been told it was rude not to eat everything. You start to learn that finishing what's in front of you is more important then if you are hungry or not.

4- You learn nutrition at school. Some schools have good programs. Many do not. The only exposure most school children receive is the food pyramid. And then it's off to lunch period where they are served fish sticks and a variety of other unhealthy items. Only a few schools have a very healthy lunch option. It's pretty rare. You learn more about ancient Egyptians then you do about how to put together a healthy meal and what the heck is a complex carb.

This is an important concept -- so let me break it down and explain it in detail.

Most things we learn are common sense. It's common sense not to touch a hot stove. Why? Somebody told you or you tried it and your body responded by telling the pain receptors in your hand that it didn't like that.

You learned the stove was hot and not fun to touch. Common sense. It didn't require any specialized knowledge.

Then it hit me...

Neither should nutrition. It doesn't require any specialized knowledge to eat correctly. But yet it's not common sense.

The reason most people get it wrong is because they were never taught!

They received a lot of information from T. V. which was promoting diets and fast food and sugar cereals.

Their parents didn't learn either so they passed that onto their children.

There's a pressure to finish everything that is put in front of you (don't be wasteful) ignoring the absence of the hunger feeling.

The lack of sound nutrition in most schools. You learn how to read in school. You learn how to write. You learn how to solve math problems. You learn history and you learn different cultures.